In 2004, archaeologist Eric Blind and artist Ben Wood found a mural concealed behind an altar at Mission Dolores.
The mural was painted sometime between 1791 and 1796, when the Ohlone and other local Native Americans are thought to have built the church. Painted on plaster, the mural is covered over with abstract patterns and Christian imagery. But about five years it was obscured behind a large wooden alter.
Blind and Wood began digitizing the mural and asked local artists Jet Martinez, Ezra Eismont and Bunnie Reiss to paint it based on photos, outside a grocery store on Bartlett Street.
Yesterday, the replica mural went on display.
Max Pringle has a report: